FYI- If you haven't already seen this...

[visick]

The 2005 Ratings Book contains a wealth of information about your favorite player and team. Getting this information is almost like a second or late Christmas. Everyone will have their favorite piece of information or juicy tidbit or nugget. We're looking at poor Bernie Williams who gets just gutted beyond belief with the CF 5e3 +4 card. Jeff Francoeur has a great Strat card, hopefully of things to come, with the RF 2e12 -3 rating. And A-Rod... Almost everything on this card is "off the charts."



Poor OF Throwing Arms
These players will have diminished value in the 2005 set.


Bernie Williams +4
Shan Stewart +3
Juan Pierre +3
Ken Lofton +2
Nick Swisher +2
John Damon +2



You really have to move Damon to LF based on the throwing arm.


Good OF Throwing Arms
Suzuki has the only –5 arm. Jones, Dye, Guerrero, Abreu (the GG winner), Hidalgo, and Guillen have –4 arms. Jeff Francoeur starts his SOM career with a –3 rating. Willy Taveras has a much better Strat card than expected with the addition of his –3 arm.

Bad Clutch
Corey Patterson, Jason Bartlett, Todd Linden, Mike Edwards, Joe McEwing, and Chris Snyder could cost runs from the bottom of the lineup.



Good Clutch
The 10 best clutch guys are: Placido Polanco, Frank Catalanotto, Magglio Ordonez, So Taguchi, Mark Kotsay, Aaron Miles, Jeff Kent, Terrence Long, Michael Young, and Brian Giles.



Unbalanced or Uneven Cards
These players may work as platoon hitters, or if possessing sufficient quality on both sides worthy of full-time status, could experience severe variation in draft league results.

Todd Helton

Jeff Francoeur

Junior Spivey

Miguel Olivo

Bengie Molina

Vernon Wells

Jody Gerut

Orlando Palmeiro

David Bell

Russell Branyan

Ryan Howard



Running
27 players have the 1-17 running rating. Only 9 players have a 1-16 running rating. Both Grady Sizemore and Alex Rodriguez have the 1-17 rating.



Bad Catcher Throwing Arms
These players lose Strat card value with +2 arms


Michael Barrett

Jason Phillips

Jason Kendall

Javy Lopez

J.D. Closser



Best Catcher Throwing Arms
Pudge and Yadier Molina check in with –3 arms.



Solid Catcher Throwing Arms
There’s nothing wrong with the –2 rating.
Jason Larue, Jose Molina, Joe Mauer, Brian Schneider, Toby Hall, and Mike Matheny

Good Pitcher Holds
11 pitchers have the –6 hold rating, including Zach Duke, Chris Capuano, Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Zambrano, and Kyle Davies



Worst Pitcher Holds
The +9 hold rating may/will impact many of the game’s biggest names, especially John Patterson, Jason Schmidt, Eric Gagne, Kevin Millwood, Bob Wickman, Greg Maddux, and Bobby Jenks.



Best DP Pitchers
Some of the pitchers with top ratings include:

Brandon Webb, A.J. Burnett, Jason Marquis, Mark Mulder, Dan Haren, Jesse Crain, Chien-Ming Wang, David Wells, Carl Pavano, Zach Duke, Carlos Silva, Kirk Saarloos, and Bob Wickman



Stolen Base Merchants
Chone Figgins and Jose Reyes have 19-15. Podsednik has 17-15 but a 64 percent jump.

The LF Cannons
Manny Ramirez with a –2 and Miguel Cabrera has the –3 throwing arm.

[MICHAELTARBELL]

Got mine the other day too! Love pouring over that stuff! :)

[LANCEBOUSLEY]

when did you order??? mine's gone missing apparantly. :cry:

[visick]

I went into your mailbox fm and stole it... :o

[LANCEBOUSLEY]

you dawg!!!

[Stoney18]

Damon isn't rates for LF. Doesn't that make him a 5 range?

[visick]

just a bit of writer sarcasm... :?

[milezd]

outfielder arm throwing strength effects the game in such a small way I will gladly take damon anyday